On July 27, the share prices of Blackstone Group dropped to US$ 24.30, causing a loss of US$ 538 million for China's State Forex Investment Company (SFIC) in its share investment.

On May 21, SFIC reached an agreement with Blackstone to purchase 9.37 percent of the latter's total stocks or 101 million non-voting ordinary shares worth a total of US$3 billion. This represented the first overseas investment by SFIC. On June 22, Blackstone was listed on the New York Stock Exchange with an IPO of US$31. Four days later, its share prices hit a record high, of US$45, but the ride ended there as Blackstone began a freefall. Last week, the US stock market experienced its biggest slump in five years, greatly affecting Blackstone.

Seeing the bad performances of Blackstone's shares, the Chinese market may lose faith in overseas investment. However, SFIC does not think the short-term fluctuation of Blackstone's share prices will have a long-term effect on its investment, given its four-year share-holding contract with the company.

For more details, please read the full story in Chinese. (http://www.cbt.com.cn/cbtnews/frontend/news.asp?ID=120793)

(China.org.cn July 31 2007)